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Comment by moojd | Hacker News Reader

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moojd·

Think start vs desktop for windows or dock vs finder for mac os

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You can already search for the app you want, though.

Ah ok. So the difference here is I do not think of my phone like I think about a computer.

Suddenly a lot of Android makes sense - they’re trying to build a little computer that fits in your pocket! Aha! I see!

I am not sure that’s a good model for designing something that is fundamentally not a little desktop computer.

You mentioned "sticking an app in a folder" -- that's as much a computer metaphor as anything.

A folder is an office metaphor, surely.

So is a desktop.

Speak for yourself. I use widgets heavily on Android and keep a clean app-less home screen. Every app is just in the drawer. As well, there are many things that one can do on Android that are simply not possible on iOS, such as using git to interface with files and querying a remote server. That's just me, though, I know the vast majority don't care about this functionality.

Yeah, totally, I get that for some people they'll see Android like that and for people like yourself the "mini computer" paradigm makes total sense.

Just not for the gigantic market that Android has.

I've always found Android's design to be really weird compared to iOS or Windows Phone, but seeing it as a "mini computer" explains why their design doesn't make sense to me - because I see phones as a separate form factor that fundamentally changes how it is used [by most people].

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